Power

The reading Power by G. William Domhoff begins by defining power and splitting it into two dimensions. The first is collective power which is more of an organizational form for countries, utilizing technology and resources to accomplish goals. The second is distributive power or the ability to be successful in conflict with other groups classes or nations. Domhoff moves on to analyze the power structure of the United States, when the country began there was really no infrastructure to deal with. There were no economic aristocrats, churches or established military to protect borders giving economic elites free reign over the market. This is how the power elite has been created, and through policy expertise and political success they have been able to maintain a dominant status within our country.

The structure of the power elite is rather intricate and is comprised of the social upper class, corporate community, and policy planning networks. They have created what domhoff called a four network party which is made up of the, special interest process, policy planning process, opinion-shaping process, and candidate selection process. They then use this power to lobby people and create legislature, change the way we think about issues, tell us who to elect, tell us what to think, and basically try to sway us to fulfill their own agenda. What I have gained from this reading is that there is most definitely a group of money and power hungry Americans at the top trying to control every move we make. They have us by the balls and there is nothing we can do about it. Quite frankly it pisses me off. The few people at the top are using their money and power to create legislature that controls masses of people. The reading said that the power elite makes up one percent of the total population. It baffles me when I think of it, how are people getting away with this? The reading talks about the 2 previous elections the 2004 bush administration and the 2008 Obama victory. Bush and his administration made it seem like the war in Iraq was escalating to get back in office, and Obama used the faltering economy to win his way into office. I would be willing to be my last dollar that just about every election in the United States history has been swung in one way or another. These people control what goes in to our food, what clothes we wear, what we see on the television, internet, radio, what drugs you take, you name it and they probably have control over it. It disgusts me to think about the amount of trust that we as Americans put into these corporate leaders and politicians. Because from my angle it seems that these people are not pursuing the best interests of all people of this country but rather for the fat stack that hey hold in their wallet and the filet mignon that they are stuffing their faces with every night for dinner. Wake up people we are not free we are simply pawns in the chess game of the elite.